Keys of Emotion
by ForgottenFantasy
Summary: Yamamoto is in critical condition, and Tsuna insists the Inheritance must go on. Gokudera and Ryohei are on patrol when they save a seemingly emotionless girl from a burning warehouse, who just might be an old acquaintance of Gokudera's.


Hello! I'm trying my hand at a non-drabble collection, and doing a multi-chapter. I'm not sure how far this will get, but I hope you'll like it! Despite being both a HeiYin and 5986 supporter, I like this couple too. :3 It goes kind of fast-paced. Sorry. D: Please don't shoot me for making Yin's room number 201! I didn't even realize it! :'D

Setting: Just after the first season of DtB, Just after Yamamoto was attacked in KHR.

Pairings: Implied 27K, 1896, 6996, and GokuderaYin.

_Hear the melody_?-

The dark alleys seemed so threatening, and friends seemed more like foes. Yamamoto was still in intensive care. Tsuna was proceeding with the Inheritance Ceremony. Gokudera's emerald green eyes shifted over to Ryohei, who was somehow amusing himself while punching a wall – or a brick building, rather. Tsuna had put the two together for patrols, and loyal Gokudera had no choice but to think that his Boss was making the right decision. The two were currently taking a short break at a random convenience store.

Uri was out of her box for the time being, and was curled around Gokudera's neck. Many affectionate scratches decorated his face – he would have to hide from Haru, so that she wouldn't plaster Hello Kitty Band-Aids over his face. It had happened before, and many times at that. She had become very paranoid about injuries, and less worried about herself. He could only pray she wouldn't pick up any of Ryohei's other perks. Gokudera would admit, though, that he himself was a bit skittish after Yamamoto's run in with the unknown enemy. The wrenching news that his comrade may never walk again ate at his mind. He vowed to get revenge on them.

An unusually loud explosion jolted the two out of their relaxing time.

"What-?" Gokudera yelled.

After recovering from Uri sinking her leopard cub claws into his neck, Gokudera began to sprint to find the source of the explosion. Ryohei jerked his own box weapon from his pocket, but didn't release it, and chased after the terribly fast Italian.

"Don't rush into it extremely, octopus head!" the boxer called in an irritated voice. The smell of smoke coated the air, and it was clear that a fire had started. Running ahead, and not paying any mind to Ryohei, Gokudera's heart raced as he hoped that the explosion wasn't related to one of his comrades. He skidded around a sharp turn and heard Ryohei yell something at him. Before him was a burning warehouse, that looked to be abandoned. Thankfully the situation was nowhere near where the other Vongola were. Ash was flying through the air and the heavy smoke choked up his lungs. Gokudera abruptly stopped and examined the situation, Ryohei finally having a chance to catch up. "Hon..estly…" the Sun guardian grunted between heaving breaths.

Gokudera whistled, taking in the sight of the burning building. "Why would this place be attacked?"  
he asked aloud.

"Maybe some old equipment caught fire?" Ryohei suggested with a shrug.

The Guardian of Storm exhaled deeply and ran his hand through his silver hair. "We can't go and search it out until that fire calms down," he muttered.

Ryohei craned his neck forward and blinked in surprise. "Hey, did you see that?"

"See what?"

"Smoke might be playing with me, but it looked like a girl was in the warehouse. Didn't get a good glimpse of her, but she had whiter hair'n you, octopus head."

Usually he would make a sharp retort to the nickname, but what the lawn head had said interested him. "Impossible. Why would anyone be in there? They would go unconscious in no time from the smoke and heat. Get your head together and stop letting it play tricks on you," Gokudera chided. Sure enough, after he said that, a flash of silvery hair caught his eye. No way. His eyes widened.

"See? I was right to the extreme!" Ryohei bellowed over-confidently.

The figure kept getting closer. If one strained their eyes, they could see a young-looking girl, with white hair fading in and out of the smoke. "For once, you're right…" Gokudera muttered to his partner. Uri abruptly hopped down from her perch. She sent a weird look at Gokudera and sprinted away toward the warehouse. "Hey-!" Gokudera rushed to go after his box weapon with a more than feisty personality, but Ryohei's strong hand got a good grasp on his arm and held him back from doing something stupid.

"She's going in for the girl…" Ryohei said slowly. Sure enough, a few moments later, the girl reappeared out of the smoke, with Uri biting at her heels. "Cat's got some extreme smarts!" the annoying voice bellowed with a fist pump. The leopard cub trotted along, nipping and biting whenever the girl stumbled or slowed down.

"Uri's useful when she wants to be, I guess," gokudera commented with a weary sigh. When the animal and girl were far away enough from the fire, he sprinted toward them. The tip of Uri's tail was smoking ( and she was less than pleased ), so Gokudera licked the tip of his fingers and promptly extinguished it. He then focused his attention to the complicated manner at hand – the girl. She was dizzy from inhaling the smoke, and coughing violently. He bent over and draped her arm over his shoulders and let her put some weight on him. She was clutching her left arm, and a trickle of blood was spilling down it. He glanced down to look at her face, her eyes. They were a ruby-violet, and one could tell she was blind by the lack of pupils and that she hadn't made eye contact with anything yet. "Oi! What were you doing in that building?" Gokudera asked with a frown. She lifted her head up weakly and turned to face his voice. Ryohei rushed up to help the two.

As Gokudera looked closer at her face, those porcelain doll features, a sudden realization came to him. There was no mistaking it – she had to be…

"Kirsi…?"

Ryohei looked at Gokudera curiously as he picked the girl up to carry her. Her blind eyes stayed locked on the one who said her name. "You know her…?"

"Er, I think so…" the male frowned. "Anyways, you take her to the hospital and I'll call Tenth."

Before Ryohei could agree to the plan, his comrade ran off to find a phone. He didn't have _any_ patience. But then again, neither did Ryohei. He glanced at the albino girl in his arms. She had closed her eyes now, and was slowly falling unconscious from exhaustion. He sighed and rushed off to the hospital, with a confused Uri in tow.

-_-a phone call later._

Tsuna had arrived at the hospital after his 'right hand man' phoned him with the odd news. The Boss had then called Kyoko, and asked her to come with him, to see if she had seen the girl around.

When the two arrived, they found Gokudera pacing the main waiting room. Upon hearing the automatic doors open, his head whipped up and he saw his ( over ) beloved boss. "Tenth!" he exclaimed as a smile spread over his face. It was obviously a fake smile, though. Tsuna smiled back and took note of the forced happiness in his appearance. "Hi, Gokudera-kun," he greeted. Kyoko simply smiled. "So, any updates on the girl?"

"She's fine. Just smoke inhalation, and various cuts and bruises." Tsuna was glad to hear no one else had been severely injured. "Hey, Kyoko, do you wanna come see if you know her?" Gokudera asked.

"Sure thing!" the girl replied. "I doubt I know her from the description you gave Tsuna, though…"

Gokudera had turned his head to look forward as the trio walked to where her room was. "Yeah…she isn't really from around here," he said absently. Tsuna and Kyoko glanced at each other curiously, both wondering how he knew that.

After a trip up a floor on the elevator, they arrived at her room – room number 201. Tsuna and Gokudera stayed outside the room to talk. Kyoko invited herself into the room and opened the door quietly. Or rather, not so quiet, when her brother saw her and embraced her in an 'extreme' hug. She laughed and let the other Sasagawa sibling smother her. "Ahaha…it's nice to see you too, brother."

"It seems like I haven't seen you in an extremely long time!" he bellowed, earning disapproving looks from passing nurses and shushes. After some time, Kyoko managed to break free and stumble over to the girl's bedside. She was right – she hadn't seen her around town at all, in all the years she had lived here. The girl, maybe 16, was a foreign albino. Without realizing it, Kyoko had reached forward and ran her hand through the girl's silk white hair and over the porcelain skin on her face. Her ruby eyes flickered open lazily and stared at the ceiling.

"Ah..! Forgive me, I didn't mean to do that!" she apologized quickly. The girl turned her head on the pillow to face the other girl. There was no expression on her face; merely emotionless eyes that Kyoko soon found out were sightless. She unearthed her hands from under the hospital blankets and pushed the sides of her lips into a false smile.

"It's…okay," she said emotionlessly. Kyoko was a bit surprised, but smiled in reply. What an odd girl.

The door clicked and the boys walked in. "Do you recognize her, Kyoko…?" Tsuna asked. She shook her head 'no' with a sideways frown. Tsuna peeked at the girl and seemed mesmerized by her doll-like appearance. She had drifted off into sleep again, the soft beep of the monitor lulling her away. "I'm going to see Yamamoto, Gokudera and Ryohei. Do you want to come with me?" he asked curiously before turning to walk back out. Ryohei, for once, didn't reply with a loud voice and simply nodded. He pushed himself out of the uncomfortable hospital chair. Gokudera thought for a moment. Any other time, he would have said yes, but the girl…this familiar girl…he couldn't get her out of his head.

"Sorry, Tenth, I'm going to keep an eye on her. But I'll go and see him later."

Tsuna nodded in understanding and opened the door. Kyoko also got up to leave, giving the mysterious girl a final glance before trotting to Tsuna's side. "Alright! I'll see you later, Gokudera-kun," Tsuna said in his usual cheerful voice. One could tell, though, that he was hiding his sadness about Yamamoto. Gokudera nodded and the three left the room, leaving him alone.

The girl, 'Kirsi', snoozed silently. He plopped down into the seat beside her bed and rested his head on his hand, looking her over.

"You haven't changed," he mused absently. The girl must have heard him, and her eyes fluttered open. "It's been a while, Kirsi."

As if trying to find her voice, she stayed quiet for a while. "Goku…dera," she croaked out hoarsely, her voice still messed up from the fire.

He smiled, as odd as it seemed for the grumpy Storm Guardian to do. "You recognize me," he said happily. "You seem different – less…alive. Why were you in that building anyways? You lived in Finland, after all…"

She rolled over from her back onto her side, following his voice. "I was with…Hei," she murmured, pausing before saying his name. Gokudera frowned – he had never heard that name before.

"Doesn't explain to me why you aren't in Finland anymore. Don't tell me you've run off and left your lonely mother, and came here with some boy," Gokudera chuckled, leaning back in the chair, and letting it rest on the back two legs, and the back of the chair against the wall. It didn't matter how much the teachers had told him not to do that as a child – it's not like he'd fall and bust his head open like they said he would, after all these years of doing it.

A normal girl would have probably blushed furiously at the comment of her running off with her boyfriend. Kirsi just diverted her eyes to gaze blindly at the bed covers. "No…" she replied in a monotone voice. This introverted and emotionless personality disturbed Gokudera. The last time they were together, she was a spunky girl who had a stubborn outlook on life. Changing the subject, she asked, "Do you…still play piano?"

The question didn't surprise Gokudera. After all, they were both talented pianists when they were younger. In fact, they both still were, most likely. "I don't play that often anymore…" he sighed with a content smile on his face. "You changed the subject so abruptly. So, what is it you can't tell me, Kirsi?" He always knew when she was lying, because she was horrible at it.

Her eyebrows twisted in conflict, and her delicate lips curved into a frown. So many thoughts bounced around her head. She remembered the time they spent together, the wonderful moments that they would play the piano together, and when she would sing while he played. It had been one of the best weeks of her life. She pulled the milky white blankets up closer to herself and curled her legs closer to her body.

"**I'm not Kirsi**."


End file.
